What Happens When a Student Teacher Uses Different Techniques Designed To Improve Comprehension in a Reading Group?

Olmstead, William E.

This study investigated what would happen when a student teacher incorporated different techniques for improving comprehension into a third-grade reading group consisting of 10 diverse students. The study noted how comprehension changed when students did creative writing in response to literature and how story mapping or character perspective charting changed comprehension. All participating students read at grade level or above. The project involved multiple sources of data. Students completed individual and group interviews. Individual interviews occurred throughout the project. Formal interviews occurred at the end of the project. The group met as a whole for at least 10 minutes every day. At a minimum, before going off for silent reading, there was a discussion of vocabulary and discussion of at least one comprehension strategy. There was more substantive discussion of the book two or three times per week. The student teacher kept notes of his observations during group meetings and silent reading periods. Data analysis indicated that the students' comprehension did not increase as much as expected. The researcher concludes that the classroom culture and student expectations doomed the experiment to failure, as the nonverbal messages to students was that the unique strategies were not important. (Contains 22 references.) (SM)